DECISION

PROMULGATING THE REGULATION ON ORGANIZATION AND OPERATION OF DRAFTING BOARDS

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the December 25, 2001 Law on Organization of the Government;

Pursuant to the November 12, 1996 Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents and the December 16, 2002 Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents;

Pursuant to the Government's Decree No. 161/2005/ND-CP of December 27, 2005, detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents and the Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents;

At the proposal of the Minister of Justice,

DECIDES:

Article 1.- To promulgate together with this Decision the Regulation on organization and operation of boards for drafting bills, ordinances or resolutions of the National Assembly or the National Assembly Standing Committee, which are submitted by the Government to the National Assembly or the National Assembly Standing Committee, resolutions or decrees of the Government.

Article 2.- This Decision takes effect 15 days after its publication in "CONG BAO."

Article 3.- Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of government-attached agencies, and presidents of provincial/municipal People's Committees shall implement this Decision.

REGULATION

ON ORGANIZATION AND OPERATION OF DRAFTING BOARDS
(Promulgated together with the Prime Minister's Decision No. 03/2007/QD-TTg of January 10, 2007)

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1.- Subjects and scope of regulation

This Regulation provides for the organization and operation of the Board for drafting a bill, ordinance or resolution (below collectively referred to as bill or draft) of the National Assembly or the National Assembly Standing Committee, which is submitted by the Government to the National Assembly or the National Assembly Standing Committee; and of the Board for drafting a Government resolution or decree (below collectively referred to as draft).

This Regulation also applies to the Board for drafting a Prime Minister decision or directive in case the Drafting Board is set up under the provisions of Clause 1, Article 23 of the Government's Decree No. 161/2005/ND-CP of December 27, 2005, detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents and the Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents.

Article 2.- Organization and operation principles of the Drafting Board

1. A drafting board shall be organized and operate on the following principles:

a/ Assurance of coordination among ministries, branches and concerned agencies and organizations;

b/ Assurance of participation of experts and scientists; democracy, objectivity and scientificity in the elaboration of the document;

c/ Raising of responsibilities of the head and members of the Drafting Board and agencies and organizations having members in the Drafting Board;

d/ Regular operation and collective discussion.

2. The Board for drafting a bill, ordinance or resolution of the National Assembly or the National Assembly Standing Committee shall terminate its operation and automatically dissolve when the bill or draft is passed, unless the Drafting Board is concurrently responsible for elaborating guiding decrees under the provisions of Clause 2, Article 22 of the Government's Decree No. 161/2005/ND-CP of December 27, 2005, detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents and the Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents.

The Board for drafting a Government resolution or decree shall terminate its operation and automatically dissolve when the draft is adopted by the Government.

Chapter II

ORGANIZATION OF DRAFTING BOARDS

Section 1. ORGANIZATION OF THE BOARDS FOR DRAFTING BILLS, ORDINANCES OR RESOLUTIONS OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OR THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY STANDING COMMITTEE OR DRAFTING DECREES UNDER POINT B, CLAUSE 2, ARTICLE 56 OF THE LAW ON PROMULGATION OF LEGAL DOCUMENTS

Article 3.- Setting up of the Drafting Board

1. The Prime Minister shall set up the Board for drafting a bill, ordinance or resolution of the National Assembly or the National Assembly Standing Committee or a Government decree (below referred to as independent decree for short) under Point b, Clause 2, Article 56 of the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents.

When a bill, ordinance or resolution of the National Assembly or the National Assembly Standing Committee has contents related to many branches or domains, the Prime Minister shall propose the National Assembly Standing Committee to set up the Drafting Board.

2. The Board for drafting a bill or elaborating a draft shall be set up by a minister, head of a ministerial-level agency, head of a government-attached agency or other agency under the Prime Minister's authorization.

Article 4.- Composition of the Drafting Board

1. The Drafting Board consists of its head who is the head of the drafting agency and other members who are representatives of the Justice Ministry, the Government Office and concerned agencies and organizations, and experts and scientists. Other members of the Drafting Board must be department directors or persons of equivalent or higher position.

2. Members of the Drafting Board must be knowledgeable of professional issues related to the bill or draft; they shall reserve time for participating in activities of the Drafting Board.

3. The Drafting Board must have at least 9 (nine) members, of whom representatives of the drafting agency and concerned agencies and organizations account for 2/3 (two-thirds) and the remaining members are experts and scientists.

Article 5.- Tasks of the Drafting Board

1. To review the enforcement of law and assess existing legal documents relevant to the bill or draft; to survey and assess the present situation of social relations related to the principal contents of the bill or draft; to study relevant treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a contracting party.

2. To study information and documents on the bill or draft.

3. To discuss policies and important issues of the bill or draft.

4. To prepare the outline of, and elaborate and revise the bill or draft.

5. To gather comments from concerned agencies, organizations and individuals as well as those directly governed by the document within an appropriate scope and in appropriate forms, depending on the nature and contents of each bill or draft.

6. To prepare a draft Government report and documents related to the bill or draft. The draft report should clearly state the necessity of the bill or draft; objectives, requirements, scope, subjects and principal contents of the bill or draft; issues that need instructions and issues on which there remain divergent opinions among members of the Drafting Board or among concerned agencies and organizations.

7. To make a report forecasting socio-economic impacts of the draft and proposing resources for the enforcement of the document.

8. To draft detailing or guiding decrees (if any).

9. To draw up a list of articles, clauses and points and legal documents which are contrary to the provisions of the bill or draft, and propose ways of amendment or supplementation of those legal documents, articles, clauses or points.

Article 6.- Tasks of the head of the Drafting Board

1. To decide on the activity plan of the Drafting Board.

2. To hold and preside over meetings of the Drafting Board and make conclusions at those meetings; in case of his/her absence from a meeting, to assign a deputy head to preside over that meeting.

3. To set up an editorial team and direct it in working out the activity plan of the Drafting Board, preparing the outline, elaborating and revising the bill or draft based on opinions of the Drafting Board.

4. To hold meetings and workshops with the participation of experts and scientists to discuss issues in the bill or draft on which there remain divergent opinions.

5. When necessary, to invite representatives of agencies and organizations, experts and scientists, including overseas Vietnamese experts and scientists and foreign scientists, to take part in activities of the Drafting Board.

6. To contact on behalf of the Drafting Board agencies or organizations to deal with issues related to the tasks of the Drafting Board.

7. Quarterly or at the request of the Prime Minister, to report on the progress of elaboration of the bill or draft to the Prime Minister; promptly report to the Prime Minister and seek his opinions on the viewpoints and underpinning ideas for the elaboration of the bill or draft; important issues arising in the course of elaboration, Drafting Board members' divergent opinions on the bill or draft, and issues different from the bill or draft submitted by the Government which arise in the course of assimilating National Assembly deputies' opinions on the bill or draft.

8. To propose the Prime Minister to assign concerned agencies to set up boards for elaborating detailing documents when the bill, ordinance or resolution of the National Assembly or the National Assembly Standing Committee needs to be detailed.

9. To propose heads of agencies which have their representatives being members of the Drafting Board to take measures to handle those members who fail to attend 3 (three) or more consecutive meetings of the Drafting Board.

Article 7.- Responsibilities of members of the Drafting Board

1. To attend all meetings of the Drafting Board; in case of absence from a meeting, to report such to the head of the Drafting Board, send written comments and appoint persons with appropriate professional qualifications to attend that meeting.

Members of the Board for drafting a bill, ordinance or resolution of the National Assembly or the National Assembly Standing Committee shall attend Government meetings discussing that bill or draft.

2. To perform tasks assigned by the head of the Drafting Board.

3. To make their activity plans on the basis of the Drafting Board's activity plan and their assigned tasks and send those plans to the head of the Drafting Board.

4. To regularly report to and seek opinions of their ministers or heads of their branches on the contents of the bill or draft.

5. To propose heads of agencies to review and evaluate the implementation of legal documents related to branches or domains under their management; to survey and evaluate the present situation of social relations in the domains under their ministries' or branches' management which are related to the bill or draft.

Article 8.- Setting up of an editorial team

1. The head of the Drafting Board shall set up an editorial team to assist the Drafting Board in performing the tasks of the Drafting Board. The Editorial Team shall operate under the direction of the head of the Drafting Board.

2. The Editorial Team has 1/2 (half) of its members being experts of the drafting agency and the remaining members being experts of agencies and organizations joining in the Drafting Board, and experts and scientists who are knowledgeable of professional issues related to the contents of the bill or draft.

Members of the Editorial Team shall participate in all activities of the Team and submit to the management of the head of the Team.

The head of the Editorial Team shall be appointed among members of the Drafting Board by the head of the Drafting Board, and shall report on the performance of his/her assigned tasks to the head of the Drafting Board.

The Editorial Team must have at least 12 (twelve) members.

Section 2. ORGANIZATION OF THE BOARDS FOR DRAFTING GOVERNMENT RESOLUTIONS AND DECREES

Article 9.- Setting up of the Drafting Board

1. When a bill, ordinance or resolution of the National Assembly or the National Assembly Standing Committee requires guiding documents, the Board for drafting that bill, ordinance or resolution shall draft guiding decrees.

2. When a bill, ordinance or resolution of the National Assembly or the National Assembly Standing Committee requires many detailing or guiding decrees, the Prime Minister shall, at the proposal of the head of the Board for drafting that bill, ordinance or resolution, assign the drafting agency the responsibility to draft guiding decrees and assign its head to set up a drafting board.

3. Except for the cases defined in Clauses 1 and 2 of this Article, ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies or heads of government-attached agencies shall set up boards for drafting Government resolutions or decrees.

4. The Drafting Board set up under Clause 2 or 3 of this Article shall assist the drafting agencies in elaborating the drafts.

The Drafting Board is composed of its head who is a representative of the drafting agency and other members being representatives of the Justice Ministry, the Government Office and concerned agencies and organizations, experts and scientists.

Members of the Drafting Board must be knowledgeable of professional issues related to the draft and shall reserve time to participate in activities of the Drafting Board.

The Drafting Board must have at least 9 (nine) members, of whom representatives of concerned agencies and organizations, experts and scientists shall represent 2/3 (two-thirds).

Article 10.- Tasks of the Drafting Board

1. To review the enforcement of law and evaluate existing legal documents related to the draft; to survey and assess the present situation of social relations related to the principal contents of the draft.

2. To study information and documents on the draft.

3. To prepare the outline of, and compile and revise the draft.

4. To gather comments from concerned agencies, organizations and individuals and those directly governed by the draft document within an appropriate scope and in appropriate forms depending on the nature and contents of each draft.

5. To prepare a draft Government report and documents related to the draft. Such a draft report should clearly state the necessity, objectives, requirements, scope, subjects and principal contents of the draft; issues which need instructions and issues on which there remain divergent opinions.

6. To draw up a list of articles, clauses and points and legal documents which are contrary to the provisions of the draft and propose ways of amendment or supplementation of those legal documents, articles, clauses or points.

7. To make a report forecasting socio-economic impacts and proposing resources for enforcement of the document.

8. To assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with concerned agencies and organizations in, preparing drafts of detailing or guiding documents.

Article 11.- Tasks of the head of the Drafting Board

1. To decide on the activity plan of the Drafting Board.

2. To hold and preside over meetings of the Drafting Board and make conclusions at those meetings; report to the head of the drafting agency on divergent opinions of the Drafting Board members on the contents of the draft; in case of his/her absence from a meeting, to assign a deputy head to preside over that meeting.

3. To set up and direct an editorial team in working out the activity plan of the Drafting Board, preparing the outline of, and elaborating and revising the draft based on opinions of the Drafting Board. When necessary, to set up groups of experts to study and propose contents related to the bill or draft.

4. To regularly report to the drafting agency on the drafting progress.

5. To hold meetings and workshops with the participation of experts and scientists to discuss issues in the draft on which there remain divergent opinions.

6. To invite representatives of agencies and organizations and experts and scientists to participate in activities of the Drafting Board when necessary.

7. To advise the head of the drafting agency on making decisions on the acceptance of evaluation opinions.

8. To promptly report to and seek opinions of the head of the drafting agency on problems arising in the course of elaboration.

9. To contact on behalf of the Drafting Board agencies and organizations to deal with issues related to the tasks of the Drafting Board.

10. Based on the contents of the draft, to request the drafting agency to propose the Prime Minister to consider and decide on the publication of the draft in the mass media or on the Internet for agencies, organizations and individuals to give comments.

11. To propose heads of agencies that have representatives being members of the Drafting Board to take measures to handle those members who fail to attend 3 (three) or more consecutive meetings of the Drafting Board.

Article 12.- Responsibilities of members of the Drafting Board

Members of the Board for drafting Government resolutions or decrees have the responsibilities as defined in Article 7 of this Regulation.

Article 13.- Setting up of an editorial team

The setting up and organization of an editorial team for a draft Government resolution or decree comply with Article 8 of this Regulation.

The Editorial Team must have at least 9 (nine) members.

Chapter III

ACTIVITIES OF THE DRAFTING BOARD AND EDITORIAL TEAM

Article 14.- Meetings of the Drafting Board

1. The head of the Drafting Board shall once a month convene a meeting of the Drafting Board. Depending on the nature and contents of the bill or draft concerned and the required drafting progress, the head of the Drafting Board may convene additional meetings to deal with issues related to the bill or draft.

2. A meeting of the Drafting Board shall be attended by representatives of the evaluating agency, the National Assembly's Law Committee (even for the Board for drafting an independent decree) and concerned agencies and organizations, and by experts and scientists.

Members of the Editorial Team shall attend meetings of the Drafting Board.

3. At a meeting, members of the Drafting Board shall:

a/ Discuss guiding viewpoints and ideas and the outline of the bill or draft;

b/ Decide on issues which should be put up for comments of agencies, organizations, individuals and those directly governed by the document;

c/ Discuss contents which should be revised based on comments of agencies, organizations, individuals and opinions of the evaluating agency.

The proceedings of meetings of the Drafting Board must be recorded in writing and these written records be included in the dossier of the bill or draft to be submitted to the Government.

4. Documents used at meetings of the Drafting Board must be prepared by the drafting agency and sent to members of the Drafting Board at least 5 (five) days before a meeting is hold.

Article 15.- Tasks of members of the Drafting Board and Editorial Team in reviewing the enforcement of law and assessing existing legal documents related to the bill or draft; surveying and evaluating the present situation of social relations related to the principal contents of the bill or draft

1. The head of the Drafting Board shall request agencies that join in the Drafting Board to review the enforcement of law, assess existing legal documents, conduct field surveys and evaluate the present situation of social relations in the branches or domains under their ministries' or branches' management which are related to the bill or draft.

2. When necessary, the head of the Drafting Board shall set up field survey teams to evaluate the present situation of social relations related to the principal contents of the bill or draft. The Editorial Team shall propose survey sites locations and contents and surveyors to the head of the Drafting Board for decision. Members of the Editorial Team shall personally participate in the survey.

3. Editorial Team members of the agencies defined in Clause 1 of this Article shall make reports on the enforcement of law in the domains under their agencies' management, on the findings of field surveys and on the evaluation of the present situation of social relations related to the bill or draft and send those reports to members of the Drafting Board.

The Editorial Team shall make a report on the findings of field surveys conducted by the survey team as provided for in Clause 2 of this Article, draw up a general report on activities specified in Clauses 1 and 2 of this Article and send them to members of the Drafting Board.

Article 16.- Tasks of members of the Drafting Board and Editorial Team in studying information and documents on the bill or draft

1. Members of the Drafting Board shall study information and documents on the bill or draft as assigned by the head of the Drafting Board and report on their study results to the Drafting Board.

2. The Editorial Team shall gather and study information, documents and treaties related to the bill or draft and propose the head of the Drafting Board to decide on the translation of foreign documents for reference. The head of the Editorial Team shall report to the Drafting Board on important information related to the bill or draft through the study of documents or treaties.

The drafting agency shall print and send documents to members of the Drafting Board and Editorial Team for study.

Article 17.- Tasks of the Drafting Board and Editorial Team in preparing the outline of, and elaborating and revising the bill or draft, and preparing a Government report

1. The Drafting Board shall discuss the principal contents of the bill or draft.

2. The Editorial Team shall elaborate a preliminary outline for the Drafting Board to discuss.

3. Based on opinions of the Drafting Board, the Editorial Team shall finalize a detailed outline and submit it to the head of the Drafting Board for decision.

4. The Editorial Team shall elaborate the bill or draft. In the course of elaboration of the bill or draft, the head of the Editorial Team shall report to the head of the Drafting Board on the progress of elaboration and promptly seek opinions of the head of the Drafting Board on issues related to the bill or draft.

5. At a meeting of the Drafting Board, the head of the Editorial Team shall present the basic contents of the bill or draft. The Drafting Board shall discuss and give comments on the bill or draft.

6. The Editorial Team shall revise the bill or draft under the direction of the head of the Drafting Board.

7. The Drafting Board shall discuss issues which need instructions and issues on which there remain divergent opinions for the Editorial Team to draft a Government report.

8. In the course of elaboration or revision of the bill or draft, the Editorial Team shall prepare a report forecasting socio-economic impacts of the bill and proposing resources for the enforcement of the document and submit it to the Drafting Board.

Article 18.- Tasks of the Drafting Board and Editorial Team in gathering comments of agencies, organizations, individuals and those directly governed by the document

1. The Drafting Board shall decide on issues which should be put up for comments, time and mode of gathering comments, and places of receipt of comments of agencies, organizations, individuals and those directly governed by documents.

2. The Editorial Team shall propose to the Drafting Board issues which should be put up for comments of agencies, organizations, individuals and those directly governed by the bill or draft; sum up those comments and report them to the Drafting Board.

3. The Drafting Board shall discuss issues which should be accepted for revision of the bill or draft.

4. The head of the Drafting Board shall direct the Editorial Team in revising the bill or draft.

Article 19.- Tasks of the Drafting Board and Editorial Team in elaborating guiding documents

1. When a bill or draft requires guiding documents, the Drafting Board shall elaborate guiding documents.

2. Under the direction of the head of the Drafting Board, the Editorial Team shall prepare contents which should be guided and elaborate guiding documents. The Drafting Board shall hold collective discussions and give comments on contents which should be guided and the drafts of the guiding documents.

3. When a bill or draft requires detailing documents, the Drafting Board shall coordinate with agencies assigned in elaborating such detailing documents until the Drafting Board is dissolved.

Chapter IV

ASSURANCE OF CONDITIONS FOR IMPLEMENTATION

Article 20.- Responsibilities of drafting agencies

Drafting agencies shall ensure material and technical conditions for the Drafting Boards and Editorial Teams to perform their tasks defined in Articles 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 of this Regulation.

Article 21.- Responsibilities of agencies and organizations having members in the Drafting Board or Editorial Team

1. To arrange time for and assign reasonable duties to members so that they can fulfill the tasks assigned by the Drafting Board and Editorial Team.

2. To review the enforcement of law, assess existing legal documents, conduct field surveys and evaluate the present situation of social relations in the domains under their ministries' or branches' management which are related to the bill or draft, and propose solutions.

Article 22.- Funds for operation of the Drafting Board and Editorial Team

Funds for operation of the Drafting Board shall be covered by the bill- or draft-elaborating agency and taken from the fund in support of the elaboration of legal documents in accordance with law.

Article 23.- Organization of implementation

In the course of implementation of this Regulation, ministries, ministerial-level agencies, government-attached agencies and provincial-level People's Committees should promptly report arising difficulties or problems to the Prime Minister for direction.